Photography

Photography is a lot less involved in Martial Arts, but possibly way more time consuming. Unlike Martial Arts, however, it can make you a substantial profit; certainly a more regular profit than Martial Arts. While all Sims can take pictures with their cell phones, it doesn’t help at all with gaining Photography skill. For that, you’ll need to travel abroad.

Pyro decides he’s had enough of writing for a bit, and books a flight to Egypt. There, he hits up the general goods merchant, who is selling three types of cameras. Now, before we go further, an aside: prior to the first patch for World Adventures, all three types of cameras were available randomly in all three countries. Since we’ve patched, it seems that the better types of cameras are only available at Egypt… and not always. If the cameras don’t appear in the general goods merchant’s inventory, wait until the next day: their stock tends to change daily (and the relics merchants always get new stuff every day), and you may get lucky.

Pyro lucks out here, as all three camera types are available. All three countries always sell the cheapest camera, which is basically a disposable one. However, better pictures lead to bigger skill gains, and of course the best pictures come from the best camera. Further, the cheapest camera really is cheap: it can’t do much but take pictures, and the frame size is pretty small, just a hair bigger than your cell phone. All in all, it’s a poor choice… which is fine, because the Falkons have nearly $200,000 in the bank, so Pyro just goes ahead and buys the best camera. He also runs over to the Egyptian bookstore nearby and buys a book to teach the Photography Skill.

Now, some skills are best taught using the associated action. For example, Martial Arts and Painting are best taught just smacking a training dummy and painting a picture respectively rather than reading about it. Photography is the opposite: you’ll see the fastest initial gains and the most money by just reading about it first. Part of the reason is practical, which we’ll get to in a moment.

Pyro makes his purchases, then heads all the home to Pyroville. This is because he’s impatient and stupid: he doesn’t realize that the best subjects for the Photography Skill are foreign, though there are more subjects for Photography domestically. As it is, once Pyro gets home, he pulls out his book and reads like crazy (helped, of course, by his Bookworm trait). Pyro hits Photograph level 3; when he hit level 2, he gained the ability to take black and white photos. That’s nice and all, but theory is one thing: Pyro needs to put it into practice.

Pyro calls up Aralia Rose and invites her over. He corners her in the front lawn and insists on taking a picture. Because of his Photography Skill, he can actually use a social interaction called “Ask To Pose,” and followed up with “Do This Pose…” to make her stand a certain way. Unlike The Sims 2: Bon Voyage, Sims will not hold this pose indefinitely. In fact, Ara gets pretty bored waiting for him to get into position to shoot a picture, so he has to ask her to do the pose again.

Pyro stands in position, and I press Shift + C. This queues up a command for Pyro to take a picture using the best camera in his inventory… which of course, in Pyro’s case, is the best camera in the game. An alternate way is to interact with the camera in inventory and select the “Take Photo” interaction, though Shift + C is quicker. Either way works the same.

Now, the game camera will snap to a first-person perspective. This, of course, is important: you aren’t getting any aerial photos like the standard game camera can provide, and your subject’s distance will have to be somewhat realistic. Just like you can’t take a good photo with the camera’s lens being shoved against your subject’s nose in reality, so to you cannot take a good photo in The Sims 3 when your Sim is standing a couple pixels away from the subject. Pyro stands about two tiles away from Ara when I give the command, which is the perfect distance. Here’s a shot of the screen that appears…

The white box, naturally, is the frame, with the inner box being the (sort of) targeting reticule. At the top center of the screen is information about the current mode your camera is in, as well as how much pictures cost to take. Yes: pictures cost money to shoot, and it can get a bit pricy if your Sim is new to the neighborhood. It also takes awhile to get a substantial profit going, so this is certainly not something to undertake if your Sim doesn’t have several thousand in the bank in case something delays you.

Anyway: also at the top of the screen is how many more pictures your camera can take. This is partly based on hard drive space, partly the quality of your camera; I wouldn’t worry too much about that, because if you’re shooting over 100 pictures and aren’t doing anything with them, you probably have more time on your hands than I do.

Across the bottom of the screen are the controls for your camera. Zooming in and out, changing the filter, pausing the game so your subject stays still, and so on: it’s all pretty simple. Note that although your camera imposes some limits on settings, your Photography Skill limits others. Although Pyro can take black & white photos, he can’t do much more, so some of his buttons are disabled. As your may have guessed, better filters and so on make for more valuable photos and larger skill gains; that means for pure profit, Pyro should be taking nothing but black & white pictures for now.

Though Pyro wanted to shoot Ara, her arm is clipping through a tree. I’m a perfectionist, so I cancel the command. (Ara is in tears still. He’s so mean to her.) Pyro walks over to his growing apple tree and decides to shoot that instead…

Now, under the frame, the phrase “Apple Tree” appears in green. This symbolizes that our subject is part of one of the many collections in the game. These objects are worth more money than random pictures. Luckily, Pyroville (or whatever neighborhood you may reside in) contains tons of valuable subjects; the apple tree is just the first of many. Pyro takes the picture (in black & white, of course), and he gets a couple pop up boxes that reports how much money the photo is worth as well as the name of the collection it’s a part of. His apple tree photo, it turns out, is worth $16, and it’s part of a collection called “Plants and Flowers.” Sweet.

With the photo in the camera’s memory, I press the J key to bring up the job skills page. Under the Photography tab, in addition to basic information and what the challenges are, you can view all your unlocked collections and what photos remain to complete them. The photo titles are pretty self-explanatory, and you always get hints whenever you shoot a new one… however, the collection names are a bit more hidden with no hints.

But, of course, that’s where IGN Entertainment comes in. These are the 13 collections in the game, as well as an overall description of what to look for, as well as an easy sample photo so you can unlock the collection to get started…

Architectural & Buildings Collection: Pretty self-explanatory here. Start this one by taking a picture of the school; be sure the front door is in the frame, as that’s how it’s counted whether the picture has been taken. Note that you’ll need to go to France to finish off the collection.

Around Town: This collection is comprised of various objects or buildings around the city. Try shooting the front door of any store: some, like the Spa, get their own special place in the collection; others get the generic “Places Around Town” entry.

Best in Class: This collection depicts the best stuff for or of your Sims. You can shoot Sims who hit the top of their careers, a luxury car, or even just an expensive stereo.

Collectables: This is a collection of various gems and relics. You’ll need to go on vacation to each country to eventually complete it. Pretty much any gem you see on vacation will unlock the collection.

Everyday Moments: This is one of the largest collections in the game, but there are plenty of common actions you can snap to complete it. Unlock it by shooting a Sim using a computer or fishing.

Family & Friends: This collection is for your Sim’s closest relationships. Know that some may require you to break some hearts and do some magic with your household. For example, one photo is called “Spouse” and another is “Main Squeeze.” If you’re married and photograph your wife or husband, it does count as “Spouse,” but it does not count as “Main Squeeze.” That means if you want to complete this collection, you’ll need to have a spouse at some point and merely a boyfriend or girlfriend at another point.

Home Sweet Home: This is a collection of various objects around the house. Finally, Pyro’s golden toilet serves a purpose!

Oh, the Calamity!: Only eight pictures, this collection depicts emergencies. Refuse paying your bills, and when the repoman comes to jack one of your precious belongings, take his picture to unlock the collection.

Paranormal: This collection is for some of the weirder stuff around the game. By far, one of the toughest pictures here is the “Double Dead” picture, which requires you to photograph the ghost of a mummy. You’ll have to get a playable mummy, kill them, then use the science center to resurrect them and make them a playable ghost, then shoot the picture. Crazy, huh? A much easier opening picture is a simple death caused by any means; starvation in a single locked room is always a classic.

Plants & Flowers: This one is self-explanatory. Pretty much anything you can plant in the ground and tend will be a picture for this.

Sims in Motion: This one is a bit tough just because it requires you to be in the right place at the right time. It’s best to have a second playable Sim to do the action while you, as the camera guy, ready yourself. Remember that P key to pause the action in place so you get that perfect shot! You can start this one off by photographing someone working out or dancing.

Still Life: These are somewhat random inanimate objects, such as a television.

Travel: This collection can only be completed while on vacation. To complete it will require at least one visit to each country, so it might take awhile. Shoot any floor switch in any tomb to get started.

Once Pyro finishes his shot, he interacts with his camera in his inventory with the “View Photos” command. From there, he can click-drag the photos out and place them around the house, on desks or even hanging on walls. Alternatively, he can sell the photos individually from there, or he can even just do a “Sell All” command to clean out his camera and make some cash.

Note that you don’t get any bonuses for completing a given collection, nor do you get anything for the completing all the collections. Photography is basically a hobby, it’s just that you can get a decent income from doing it eventually. Also, taking multiple pictures of the same subject in the same day diminishes their value. However, pictures on subsequent days will restore the value. So Pyro won’t bother taking any more pictures of his apple tree today, but he might tomorrow, and he’ll still earn some cash.

Oh, one more thing: if you have low Photography Skill, there is a chance that the photo turns out “bad.” This could mean it appears blurry (as if your Sim couldn’t steady his hands), or you may even have a gnome magically appear and take up most of the frame. These bad shots will disappear more as you gain Photography, to the point where they won’t appear at all once you hit level 10. Some of the shots are pretty amusing (the gnome one especially) and you may want to keep them for posterity, but they aren’t valuable cash-wise and won’t gain your skill very fast.